Friday, December 19, 2008
Cashmere VS. Pashmina
This time of year all a women wants is to surround herself in a luxurious cashmere shawl. But why do we only hunt for Pashminas, and if they are supposed to be so rare and expensive, why do they seem to invade every store on Fisherman's Wharf? And why can one feel like paper and the other feel like, well, cashmere? I'm here to end the questions and let you know what the deal really is with these so called "Pashminas."
But we can't do that without a little history. Cashmere comes from the Cashmere goat, which is indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas around Mongolia, Iran, and Afganistan. Cashmere is known for its soft hand and ability to keep warmth in. The Cashmere fiber is finer and less coarse than other types of wool making it more sought after in colder climates. Pashmina, on the other hand, is a type of wool from a specific type of Cashmere goat. These goats are not from Kashmir or Nepal, where similar weaving techniques are often used in the making of shawls and wraps.
The term Pashmina becomes even more specific in the type of methods used to make this shawl. Authentic Pashminas are made by hand using traditional methods, not the modern day spinning techniques that the Europeans introduced after finding this fine fiber. Today pashmina is the term given to any shawl from this goat with knotted fringe at the end.
Both cashmere and pashmina may be blended with other fibers, such as silk and wool to create blends. These additions change the hand and warmth of the garment. The hand may also change with quality of cashmere wools, the lower the quality the more coarse and wool-like the texture will be. Of course this affects the price as well.
If you ask me, any type of cashmere feels like a luxury.
Clothing-cyclopedia Britni
-most info taken from Wikipedia
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